Method of manufacturing a magnetic film having high coercivity for use as a hot seed in a magnetic write head

ABSTRACT

A method of forming a sub-structure, suitable for use as a hot seed in a perpendicular magnetic recording head, is described. A buffer layer of alumina with a thickness of 50-350 Angstroms is formed by atomic layer deposition as a write gap. Thereafter, one or more seed layers having a body-centered cubic (bcc) crystal structure may be deposited on the buffer layer. Finally, a magnetic film made of FeCo or FeNi with a coercivity of 60-110 Oe is deposited on the seed layer(s) by a physical vapor deposition (PVD) method at a rate of 0.48 to 3.6 Angstroms per second. The magnetic film is preferably annealed at 220° C. for 2 hours in a 250 Oe applied magnetic field.

This is a Divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/651,437, filed on Oct. 14, 2012, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety, and assigned to a common assignee.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosed material relates to the general field of perpendicular magnetic write poles with particular reference to the design and formation of hot seed layers on which such poles are grown (main pole is under hot seed layers).

BACKGROUND

To further increase the storage areal density of the hard disk drive (HDD) system, there has been a growing demand for improving the performance of magnetic recording heads. In a current perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) head, a single pole writer with a tunneling magnetoresistive (TMR) reader provides a high writing field and a large read-back signal to achieve a higher areal density.

The single pole writer consists of a main pole (MP) surrounded by magnetic shield materials from which the MP is separated by a nonmagnetic spacer layer. The MP has a tapered shape whose tip faces the magnetic media as well as serving as an air bearing surface (ABS). In addition to the MP and the magnetic shield materials, a single pole writer also includes a pair of pancake-like conductive coils. These two coils are connected through a center tab, with one placed above the MP and the other under the MP perpendicular to the ABS direction. During writing, an electric current is applied through the coils, causing a large magnetic field to be generated from the MP tip. This field is used to change the polarity of the magnetic media.

A MP ABS view of a prior art design is shown in FIG. 1. In ABS view, the MP body 13 has a triangular or trapezoidal shape. As seen, the MP width (PW) defines the track width in the media. Soft magnetic shield materials 15 are used around the MP with a nonmagnetic spacer in between. The nonmagnetic spacer 14 on the two sides of the MP is called the Side Gap (SG) and the nonmagnetic spacer 12 above the MP is called the Write Gap (WG). Above the WG, a high magnetic magnetization material 11, such as Fe_((1-x))Co_((x)) (x=20-55 at %), Fe_((1-y))Ni_((y)) (y=5-55 at %), or the like is deposited above the MP write gap 12. This high magnetic magnetization layer 11 is the so-called “hot seed”.

SUMMARY

It has been an object of at least one embodiment of the present disclosure to provide a hot seed layer that is well suited to serve as a substrate on which to build a perpendicular magnetic write pole wherein the main pole is under hot seed layers.

Another object of at least one embodiment of the present disclosure has been that said hot seed have high coercivity and low anisotropy.

Still another object of at least one embodiment of the present disclosure has been that said high coercivity be stable to temperatures of up to 120° C.

A further object of at least one embodiment of the present disclosure has been to provide a process for manufacturing said hot seed layer.

These objects have been achieved by first depositing one or more seed layers having a body-centered cubic (bcc) crystal structure on the write gap. This is followed by the deposition of a buffer layer of alumina on the seed layer(s). It is important for this buffer layer to be laid down through atomic layer deposition (ALD) so as to achieve maximum conformal coverage.

Finally, a high coercivity magnetic film is deposited onto the layer of ALD alumina. It is a key feature of the disclosed method and structure that this high coercivity magnetic film be deposited at a very low deposition rate (around 1 Angstrom per second).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an ABS view of a main pole of the prior art.

FIG. 2 is an ABS view of main pole with a FeCo hot seed layer that was deposited using a high deposition power.

FIG. 3 is an ABS view of a main pole with a FeCo hot seed layer that was deposited using low deposition power.

FIG. 4a is an ABS view of a main pole with an ALD Al₂O₃ buffer layer and an overlying FeCo hot seed layer that was deposited using low deposition power, and FIG. 4b is an embodiment of the present disclosure wherein the write gap is a composite with two layers.

FIG. 5 shows hysteresis loops of as-deposited and post-annealed FeCo films using 2 KW deposition power.

FIG. 6 shows hysteresis loops of as-deposited and post-annealed FeCo films using 0.5 KW deposition power.

FIG. 7 shows a plot of coercivity vs. deposition power for as-deposited and post-anneal FeCo films.

FIG. 8 is an ABS view of a main pole with bcc seed layers located between the hot seed layer and the ALD Al₂O₃ buffer layer.

FIG. 9 shows hysteresis loops of a 1,000 Å FeCo film grown on a Ta 50 Å seed layer in as-deposited and post-annealed state.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The disclosed material includes a method to grow a high coercivity Fe_(1-x)Co_(x) (x=20-55 atomic %) film or a high coercivity Fe_(1-y)Ni_(y) (y=5-55 atomic %) film as the hot seed layer for a magnetic recording writer. This method involves using a low deposition power scheme in a Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) system. When this deposition scheme is used, the coercivity of the Fe_(1-x)Co_(x) (x ranging from 20 to 55 atomic %) hot seed layer, hereinafter referred to as the “special hot seed”, is greatly improved for both its as-deposited state as well as for its post magnetic anneal state.

A buffer layer may be inserted beneath the special hot seed. This buffer layer is an Al₂O₃ film, which should be formed by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). Additionally, one or more seed layers that have bcc crystalline structures may be inserted between the special hot seed and the ALD Al₂O₃ buffer layer.

The special hot seed was processed in a Nexus PVDi system that is manufactured by Veeco. The film is deposited at an Ar flow rate of 50 standard cubic centimeters per minute (sccm), a process pressure of 3 mtorr, and with a target-substrate distance of about 65 mm. The typical special hot seed thickness ranged from about 200 Å to 1,000 Å.

The special hot seed film was deposited directly onto the WG. The WG materials are nonmagnetic and act as an isolating spacer between the MP and the hot seed. The typical thickness for the WG is 50-350 Å. Typical WG materials are Al₂O₃, SiO₂, Ru, etc. The magnetic properties were determined by measuring hysteresis loops using a BH looper (SHB instrument, Inc.) for the as-deposited films and annealed films.

Annealing is performed at a temperature between 180° C. and 300° C. and with an externally applied magnetic field ranging from 200 to 1000 Oe for at least 1.5 hours, and preferably, at 220° C. for 2 hours in a 250 Oe applied magnetic field. The deposition power, which in turn determined the deposition rate, was adjustable. FIG. 2 illustrates a MP ABS view for the case in which the special hot seed 21 was deposited at a relatively high deposition rate such as >3.6 Å per second.

In the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, special hot seed 31, about 500 Å thick, was deposited at a relatively low deposition rate such as ≦3.6 Å per second. Typically, the coercivity of the special hot seed formed at the lower deposition rate was found to be greater than that formed at the higher deposition rate. Thus, the lower the deposition rate, the higher the coercivity of the deposited film. In one example, the magnetic film has coercivity greater than 60 Oe, as deposited, and coercivity greater than 30 Oe after being magnetically annealed.

In the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4a , buffer layer 41 was added below special hot seed layer 31. This buffer layer was 50-350 Angstroms of Al₂O₃ formed in an Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) system. The ALD-formed buffer layer can serve as part of the WG 12 thickness as depicted in FIG. 4b where the alumina buffer layer 41 is formed on a lower write gap layer 12 a. The ALD-formed Al₂O₃ buffer layer is amorphous, and therefore it has less crystalline effect on the hot seed layer above.

The hysteresis loops of special hot seeds grown at 4.8 Å per second deposition rate (2 KW deposition power) are shown in FIG. 5. An approximately 300 Å thick Al₂O₃ layer, formed through ALD, was used as the buffer layer. It was found that the as-deposited films are magnetically isotropic with coercivity about 20-30 Oe. The overall coercivity did not vary significantly post magnetic anneal but did become slightly lower in the annealing field direction.

The hysteresis loops for a special hot seed film formed with 0.5 KW deposition power (1.2 Å/sec.) are shown in FIG. 6. An approximately 300 Å thick Al₂O₃ buffer layer formed through ALD was used as the buffer layer. These films were also magnetically isotropic but their coercivity was greatly enhanced to about 100 Oe for as-deposited films. This coercivity dropped to about 60 Oe post magnetic annealing but was still 2.5 times larger than that of an annealed film formed at 2 KW deposition power (4.8 Å/sec.).

FIG. 7 summarizes the coercivity vs. deposition power relationship for special hot seed films. The deposition power ranged from 0.2 KW to 2 KW, corresponding to a deposition rate range from −0.48 to −4.8 Å/sec. All films had thicknesses of about 1,000 Å and were deposited on an ALD Al₂O₃ buffer layer about 300 Å thick. BH loop measurements showed the films to be isotropic. The coercivity increased nearly monotonically with decreasing deposition rate. The maximum coercivity (about 115 Oe for an as-deposited film and about 77 Oe for a post anneal film) was found to occur at a deposition power of 0.3 KW (0.72 Å/sec.).

FIG. 8 illustrates an embodiment wherein one or more seed layers 81 of Body-Centered Cubic (bcc) material were inserted between the special hot seed 31 and WG 12 (including the ALD Al₂O₃ buffer layer). The bcc seed layers serve to improve the bcc crystalline growth of the special hot seed layer, resulting in a higher coercivity because of the higher intrinsic crystalline anisotropy. For example, a magnetic film may be formed with coercivity greater than 70 Oe, as deposited, and coercivity greater than 60 Oe after being magnetically annealed.

Additionally, since these bcc seed layer(s) are nonmagnetic, they can be counted as part of the WG thickness surrounding the magnetic recording writer's main pole. Materials for the bcc seed layer(s) can be Ta, W, TaW, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Ni_(1-v)Cr_(v) (v=28-100 atomic %), Cr_(1-z)Ti_(z) (z=0-37 atomic %), including any combinations that crystallize as superlattices.

FIG. 9 shows an example of this bcc seed layer effect. A 50 Å thick Ta layer was inserted between a special hot seed deposited at low-power and the ALD Al₂O₃ buffer layer. The as-deposited film was magnetically isotropic with a coercivity of about 95 Oe. The post annealed film shows a coercivity of about 85 Oe. This reduced drop in coercivity confirmed the advantages of the bcc seed layer insertion. 

We claim:
 1. A process to form a magnetic film with a coercivity of sufficient magnitude for use as a hot seed in a magnetic recording writer having a write gap (WG), comprising: (a) providing a substrate in a perpendicular magnetic recording writer; (b) forming a buffer layer of Al₂O₃ between 50 and 350 Angstroms thick on the substrate with an atomic layer deposition process; (c) depositing the magnetic film on the buffer layer with a physical vapor deposition process at a deposition rate in a range of from 0.48 to 3.6 Angstroms per second wherein the magnetic film is selected from the group consisting of Fe_(1-x)Co_(x) wherein x is about 20-55 atomic %, and Fe_(1-y)Ni_(y) wherein y is about 5-55 atomic %; and (d) annealing the magnetic film at a temperature from about 180° C. to 300° C. in an externally applied magnetic field ranging from 200 to 1000 Oe for at least 1.5 hours.
 2. The process of claim 1 further comprising: depositing one or more seed layers of nonmagnetic materials having a body-centered cubic (bcc) crystal structure on the Al₂O₃ buffer layer prior to depositing the magnetic film.
 3. The process of claim 2 wherein one or more of the seed layers is selected from a group consisting of Ta, W, TaW, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Ni_(1-v)Cr_(v) wherein v is from about 28-100 atomic %, and Cr_(1-z)Ti_(z) wherein z is from 0 to about 37 atomic %.
 4. The process of claim 2 wherein the substrate is the write gap.
 5. The process of claim 4 wherein the Al₂O₃ buffer layer is also part of the write gap.
 6. The process of claim 4 wherein the one or more bcc seed layers constitute part of the write gap.
 7. The process of claim 2 wherein the magnetic film has a coercivity greater than 70 Oe, as deposited, and a coercivity greater than 60 Oe after being magnetically annealed.
 8. The process of claim 1 wherein the magnetic film has a coercivity greater than 60 Oe, as deposited, and a coercivity greater than 30 Oe, after being magnetically annealed. 